Over the past month, I have spent a lot of time working with companies on their plans for 2012. Everyone wants to do more than their resources allow and getting the most out of limited resources is in many ways what it means to be an entrepreneur.

But, teams often start editing the options before taking the time to fully create. They say no to opportunities before exploring them because the resources to support them are not in the current plans. The decision is obvious in the current headspace - but editing like this, locking in to your current headspace, makes it really hard to understand the value or potential of an effort and to optimize your opportunities instead of allocating your resources.

A simple example of this is travel. At my video game company I was responsible for product, marketing and sales. As the product got close to completion, I started to travel a ton. From Portland, OR, I was working on marketing partnerships in New York, Cincinnati and Chicago. I was also making trips to Seattle, Minneapolis and Bentonville trying to sell a fitness game to any buyer who would listen.

I scheduled all this travel myself and worked really hard to get the most out of every trip. As hard as I tried, there were meetings and opportunities I missed because it was impossible to get from one place to another, through security and across timezones to make it work for both meetings.

Once, I had to choose between meeting the head buyer at Wal-Mart and a national media opportunity in New York. I knew my priorities and based my choice on what I thought was best for the company.

We sent the product to Good Morning America and it was included in a segment (instead of me having my 15 minutes of fame by being on the show). I went to Bentonville to try to sell some games. I made the trade off based on the headspace I was in - a commercial traveler trying to generate revenue for my company.

But what if I had a private jet? How would my decisions and opportunities and priorities change in this new headspace? If I had a jet, I might have taken the time to more fully understand the chances of appearing on the show and the value of a focused segment vs. inclusion of the product in a segment on fitness gaming.

I think I allocated resources rather than optimizing my opportunities.

As you make your 2012 plans, fine people $100 for saying "no" and push them to imagine a world where anything is possible, unconstrained and with infinite ability to execute. Figure out what you would do and where the company would focus to optimize opportunity. Be clear about why.

Use this vision of the biggest opportunity to set your priorities and allocate your resources in the real world.

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